CATEGORIES

Out of the shadows A Pandora's box has been opened, and this crisis is far from over

Israel’s retaliation was surprisingly limited. Iran minimised the significance of last Friday’s air attacks on a military base near Isfahan and other targets, denying they were externally directed.

Pacifist who helped Ukrainians dies in jail

Schoolteacher Alexander Demidenko guided refugees back to their homeland until he was arrested and tortured in prison by Kremlin forces

Huck reimagined This bravura rewriting of Mark Twain from enslaved Jim's pointof view is part critique and part celebration

Percival Everett's new novel lures the reader in with the brilliant simplicity of its central conceit. James is the retelling of Mark Twain's 1884 classic, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, from the point of view of Jim, the runaway slave who joins Huck on his journey down the Mississippi River.

Can AI make intelligent art?

Pierre Huyghe's uncanny machine-human hybrids are the latest attempt to find deeper meaning in a technology that leaves many playing catch-up

Ripley: a psychopath made for social media

Patricia Highsmith's charming devil has fascinated film-makers since the 1960s, but his brand of evil seems well suited to the Instagram age

For a year, the bodies have piled up-and still the world looks away

One year ago this week, Sudan descended into war. The toll so far is catastrophic.

A test for US justice as Trump's criminal trial begins

He has been businessman, TV showman and president of the United States. This week, in the sobering surroundings of a New York courtroom, Donald Trump played yet another role in American history when he became the first former White House occupant to stand trial in a criminal case.

Tall tales Children flock to the storyteller of Karachi

Pedalling down a narrow alleyway in Karachi's crowded Lyari Town, Saira Bano slows as she passes a group of children sitting on the ground, listening to a man reading aloud from a book. The eight-year-old gets off her bike, slips off her sandals, and sits on the mat at the back.

The stolen schoolgirls

Ten years on from Chibok, what happened to the 276 Nigerian girls who were snatched by Islamist militants from their school?

Second coming for Notre Dame's salvaged artworks

There was a moment on 15 April 2019 as the flames consuming Notre Dame Cathedral roared into the evening sky when it seemed all would be lost.

How the Priscilla, Queen of the Desert bus was found

After a 30-year hunt, the original was discovered in New South Wales having survived fires and floods

Calls to end 'fear culture' in gender research

Cass review found medical professionals scared to discuss views amid risk of reputational damage and online abuse

Russia 'is waging an energy war' against Kyiv

A dramatic rise in European energy prices is inevitable if the Russian destruction of Ukrainian energy infrastructure continues unabated, the former chief executive of Ukraine's state-owned oil company has warned.

Gamechanger Direct attack on Israel is a crisis that affects us all

The missiles and drones that rained destruction on Israel last Sunday morning gave Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, what he craved - a mandate and justification for openly attacking Iran, a country he has long viewed as Israel's archenemy.

RAIDERS of the LOST ART

At least 2,000 items from the British Museum were reported missing, stolen or damaged last year, and it now faces a massive overhaul. But it's not the only institution that finds it hard to keep hold of its collections - and when that happens, who do they call? Mark Wilding meets the art detectives who track down disappeared treasures

Iran's attack has shifted focus from aid effort

As Israel becomes 'victim overnight', diplomatic efforts are moving away from plight of Gazans displaced by war

SWEPT AWAY

WHEN THE WATERS ROSE, Meike and Dörte Näkel weren't worried. People in this part of the world, the Ahr valley in Germany, are used to it.

Presidents Assemble Obama And Clinton Give Biden Boost

For once showbusiness royalty - Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo, Lea Michele and Mindy Kaling was not the main attraction. Instead it was a trio of US presidents that enticed people to pay up to half a million dollars for New York's hottest ticket.

How Island Kept Death Toll Low In Massive Earthquake

For Nina Huang, it was the shaking that jolted her awake. "The first thing I did when I woke up was to hold the cupboard next to my daughter. I was afraid that it might fall down on her," she recalled. Then her phone buzzed with a warning about a tsunami.

Anguish Over Tens Of Thousands Of Missing Palestinians

Late one night in March, Ahmed Abu Jalala rose quietly, trying hard not to wake his family, sleeping around him on the floor of a UN-run school in northern Gaza.

Everyday magic From Rafael Nadal's ball-bouncing to wedding and funeral traditions, does ritualistic behaviour serve any purpose?

The adjective \"ritual\", from Latin via French, means related to religious rites. As soon as it appeared, however, the word \"ritual\" could be used in a derogatory fashion to denote things empty of authentic spiritual content.

Not doing well A survivor of a life-threatening illness charts the history of health anxiety, asking if it is a rational response to our flawed bodies

In the 14th century, King Charles VI of France suffered from a curious delusion. He believed his body was made entirely of glass. A relatively new material, both fragile and transparent, glass captures the hypochondriac's acutest fear - brittle vulnerability - with their greatest desire: visceral omniscience.

London calling The life of a workingclass writer made good is the dark, Dickensian spine of this enjoyable stateof-the-nation novel

The city itself is the star of all great London novels, and plays whatever role is required by the tale or the times. It was a semi-sentient organism in Dickens's Bleak House, wrapped in fog and thick with mud.

Hitman who wears a hoodie

In 2014, Ed Sheeran became the most-streamed pop star in the world. The 10 years since have seen the artist dominate music-for better or worse. How did he do it?

Genre gap Beyoncé's new album falls short

Cowboy Carter arrives on the back of booming business for the country genre, drowning out the Black music history it claims to celebrate

Keeper of the flame

It is seen as one of the greatest films ever. So what has Víctor Erice been doing in the halfcentury since The Spirit of the Beehive? As his new film hits screens, he reveals all

If the defeated Tories lurch further right it is bad news for Labour

For many people reading this, the analogy will seem ludicrous, but hear me out: if the Conservative party was one of your friends, you'd be very worried about them.

True ugliness is editing out a disabled child from a school photo

There is a difference between being shocked and being surprised. I thought of that as I read the news that disabled children had been \"erased\" from their class photo in a primary school in Aberdeenshire in Scotland.

Six tips for budding centibillionaires (No 1: come from a wealthy family)

There is a tiny new elite at the frontier of money-making and they are known as the centibillionaires. These titans of the universe have personal assets of at least $100bn, and there are now 14 of them in the world-up from six last year. You will find them listed, compared and celebrated by the Bloomberg billionaires index and the Forbes world's billionaires list, which has just been published.

Market share Division and dysfunction cloud WTO's vision

When trade ministers gathered in the Moroccan city of Marrakech 30 years ago this month to sign the agreement creating the World Trade Organization (WTO), the mood was celebratory. The Berlin Wall had come down only recently, communism had collapsed, and there was optimistic talk of how the body would prise open new markets and act as the arbiter when disputes broke out between countries.